Indeed it is… Look for cakeday under the hamburger menu.
I noticed I didn’t have mine yesterday and should have. Coding horror eventually got it figured out and it seems to be all fixed now.
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Huh, looks like we were all Discourse-born within about a day of each other. I forget, was there a mass import from Disqus?
Interestingly, many of the people Discourse-born “today” are very familiar to me, while I have yet to find someone Discourse-born “tomorrow” that I know.
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no you just had to sign up with the new comment system.
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Only 105° at noon today! Things are definitely improving.
Mona’s still in her hole from about 8am on. Hopefully she’s done digging (I was a little concerned about her coming up in the neighbor’s yard).
Can’t see her? Let’s get a little closer:
If we dig that far down here in Tucson, we have to use a rock bar.
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on the opposite end of the turtle spectrum…
I’ve mentioned upthread about the large-ish pond across the street from me. There are a ton of red-eared turtles and what have you. I’ve seen a giant snapper in another pond a few blocks from me. Anyway, I cut thru my neighbors backyard to and from work every day. Coming home this evening, there was a big rock dead center of the yard that wasn’t there this morning. I got a little closer… no, there’s a head. they have a whimsical yard sculpture of a turtle.
nope. actual turtle. big old softshell. its over a foot wide, probably like a foot-and-a-half. not trying to hide in its shell or move away, it’s dead. nope, very slight eye movement when i was practically next to it. this turtle needs protection from dogs or lawnmowers, I reasoned.
after I got the camera and snapped the pics I grabbed it properly and walked it up to the pond as the rain was coming on. it put up no fight but swiveled its head to watch me and I’m sure it wanted to bite me, but it didn’t thrash its legs around like my pet painteds used to do. from that perspective was when I really noticed how spiky it was in the shoulder area. I set it on the pond’s edge, it didn’t do anything, I thought maybe its rear legs were lame/broken/missing since I hadn’t actually seen them yet. so I lifted a bit to peek under and that was what triggered it to finally shove off–bloop!
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Awesome…what a face!
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My wife has been amusing herself by making YouTube videos of our pets. I’ll post some of them if people really want to see. But anyway the Google Photos robots decided to make an animated gif out of one of the clips I shot for her on my phone:
This is Leia greeting us with the “thing” which is a stuffed remnant of fun fur my wife made for our other dog.
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Update on Tasha and Ruby the rescue cats:
It’s been a couple weeks, and now that they’re settling in, I’m starting to see the real personalities come out. I think I’m getting some insight as to why they wound up in the shelter in the first place.
Tasha, the older one. The vet at the Humane Society estimated her to be about 10 years old, but I’m thinking she’s older. Even after weight gain, she’s still looking rather scrawny in the hips, but I can see she was well-fed and a formidable presence in her younger days. She moves and sits cautiously, so I think arthritis might be setting in.
I’m noticing some signs of what could be feline dementia. She acts a bit confused at times, darting around the apartment, stopping and looking around. I’m wondering if she may have been an indoor/outdoor cat who wandered away from home, and got more and more confused as hunger and stress set in?
Either way, she’s very comfortable here, sleeping most of the day safely on the office chair or the bed. She’s definitely decided to be my nighttime partner, nestled in next to my torso as I sleep.
Ruby, the young one. Ruby’s settling in very easily. She loves pets and massages, and doesn’t mind being picked up and held. I don’t know if she’ll develop into a lap cat, though. She seems to prefer her pod for sleeping.
She’s so small she reminds me of those Munchkin cats, but she’s a bit too long and lean for that category. The shape of her face, body, and limbs has a very similar look to Disney animated cats like in The Lion King, which lends a lot to her cuteness.
She’s also loud, and demanding when she wants to be. Woke us up at 6:30 this morning wanting breakfast.
I’m still keeping them separated, but Ruby is being very pushy and forward about getting to know Tasha, which Tasha is not too keen on right now. Often, when I’m bringing Tasha her food, Ruby runs into the room and right up in Tasha’s face with an enthusiastic meow, which makes Tasha nervous as hell. I hope gradual adjustment over time will help her become more used to the idea.
Ruby just had a litter of kittens, and she’s calm around other cats, so I think she’s been in a multiple-cat situation before.
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Brothers:
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Definitely had at least one cat who developed feline dementia: she would suddenly race from one side of the house to the other, stop in the middle of a room, stare about confusedly, then wander off slowly in the other direction. But that was in a house she’d lived in for 18 years, so it was pretty clear.
Another cat, Charlie, developed arthritis. We gave him Cosequin for it and it actually reversed some of the damage initially, and definitely slowed progression for many years. We bought a stool/shoe chest for the foot of the bed so that he didn’t have to jump all the way up, but the hardest thing was peeing, as he couldn’t squat properly and would pee over the side of the litter box. I got a large plastic storage bin from Homme d’Pot and cut a hole in one side down to about two inches off the the ground, sprayed the interior with one of those hydrophobic sprays, and used puppy pads in the bottom, and it worked great.
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None of that rain, or official highs under 105˚ ever happened. It’s stayed at highs of at least 105˚ and been bone dry. That means for us this is week three of every day going above 110˚.
The rain that was supposed to arrive today or tomorrow, or was that Monday, or was that last week, is now put off until next Monday.
Update:
Thunderstorm now pushed off until Thursday.
Update update:
Now Friday.
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Peaked over 102° today, but is actually coming down now.
And rain: not here, but over the Catalinas. With luck right on top of the Burro Fire.
Update:
Actually, it did get up to 108° in our yard yesterday, but that still breaks three solid weeks over 110°.
http://boingboing.net/2017/07/10/even-with-climate-accord-plan.html
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Alpha cat, omega dog. Poor pup will not challenge her for the dog bed.
Other cat will share, but just barely.
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Poor puppers!
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It’s most pathetic when Big Kitty takes over his bedroom bed during the night. He’ll stand next to the bed and whimper and whine until I evict the cat. He’s such a wimp. Still a very good boy though…
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He looks like a great doggo! 13/10!
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Weeks late, and mild (so far), but what a relief! The Monsoon is here. Forecast flipped between clear all day and thunderstorms about every hour today, but thunderstorms won out.
Now to see how soundly the Ratel kitt sleeps. He’s a Monsoon baby, born in a thunderstorm a little over ten months ago, but he’s seen little rain since, much less lightning.
Keeping an eye on Mona’s hole! But it’s actually under an eave and not even being rained on.
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I woke up a couple days ago with “Other cat’s” twin taking up most of my allotted bed space… Don’t know how he managed it, but I was almost falling off the edge with him pressed against my back.
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